23 July 2017 – Catch report from: Jon and family

This week’s it’s a proper family affair and a wonderful fishing holiday with 5 x cats to 100lbs and 17 carp to 37lbs!

This week we had the great pleasure of welcoming back a super family from Cornwall for their 3rd visit to the venue. This year, mum Gill decided to join her two sons and husband to spend plenty of quality time with her family. She was delighted with the place and the boys liked how the lake has matured since their last visit in 2015.

Dad Henry is a proper Cornish man and the salt of the sea runs deep in his veins. He’s as much at home off shore angling for bass and bream as he is for carp and cats. Henry is a keen angler and doesn’t let age affect his fishing in any way. He bivvys up with the boys like he’s always done and always goes home with a few nice specimens under his belt.

By Monday Henry had yet to connect with anything but he wasn’t bothered or phased in the slightest. With plenty of fish crashing along the south facing Island margin he was already mid move to Island point. The move paid off and he banked the fin perfect Nicky at 32lbs!

Henry with Nicky at 32lbs

The week starts with a bang!

Steve started the week in style in the Big Double with an epic 2hr hour battle on his very first try when he hooked and landed a 100lb catfish! Steve previous PB was 86lbs (not exactly small!) but this 100lber was a different level again and it took the efforts of the entire family to win the day. Jon who was on gloving duty actually had a take during the fight and had plenty of time to safely bank a lovely mirror while Steve fought toe to toe with this creature from the deep! Even Gill came out at 2am to see the show and shout encouragement from the safety of dry land!

Steve had all the catfish takes and banked all 5 of them!

After the long journey and long fight Steve considered not putting the rod back out after the battle but he was here to get the best from the place so he did drop another rig. A few hours later he was in again with an 88lb specimen! It’s a good job that these boys are proper fit… Sunday was a very quiet day for all, catching up on some much need sleep!

Steve’s catfish spot was highly productive and produced all five catfish. Jon really wanted to up his catfish PB this trip but despite him having a rod just a few yards away from Steve’s, it was always Steve that got the pickup. While Steve got all the glory, Jon was the unsung gloving hero!

All fish fall for Beausoleil baits and rigs

I saw the group again on Wednesday. After the start they’d had, I was confident that they’d have had a few more….what I wasn’t expecting was a total score of 19 fish over 22lbs! That’s the best mid week score this year by some margin. Steve alone had had 11. The score included 6 x 30’s to 37lbs and some more massive cats. I quizzed the lads on rigs and tactics and they basically said they were just fishing the way I’d always advised: simple bottom bait Beausoleil rigs, hand sharpened hooks, line of bait along the margins etc. All the fish came on either 20mm or 24mm Nutty Banoffee and for the cats they were adding lashings of our 10mm house pellet…. simples!

Steven with the very pretty Stardust at 24lbs 12oz

Of course the technical elements are important but you still have to know where to put the rigs and when, and this comes from experience. All the guys are very competent anglers, they keep it simple, observe the fish movements, find the features and make their plan of attack accordingly. What was also impressive is that they had zero losses. No hook pulls, nothing. Really good work!

Jon with a 30lb common

Steve is top rod with 15 fish

By the end of the week Henry had had two low 30’s, Jon had had 7 carp to 30lbs and the sturgeon and Steve had an amazing haul of 15 fish total including a 37lb carp and a 100lb catfish (the highest individual total this year).

At the end of the week, Gill’s only complaint was that they had to go home as she wanted to stay another week! Although Gill didn’t actually fish, she did play a very active role throughout the week, including boat rowing and bait boat delivery duties. A week a Beausoleil flies by very fast but we very much look forward to seeing them again in the future.